The Zodiac People Revised
by agent000
Summary: A rewrite of one of my classics. Ed has to go on a mission to find some bizarre group called 'The Zodiac People', people who honestly think they're the signs of the zodiac. But nothing could have prepared him for what he actually found.
1. Chapter 1

_**I wrote this fic a long time ago, but just now decided that I should really rewrite it so that it was worth reading, since last time I wrote it, I wasn't very good with words. Funny that I should rewrite it today of all days too. Today is the Chinese new year, and is even the year of the Rat, like me! w00t! Hehe...though this fic is about western astrology, not eastern, but oh well. Close enough.**_

_**Anyway, the original fic is still in my profile if you want to read it for comparison, though I don't recommend reading it for the sake of reading the story, because it really isn't very well written. It would be better to wait for the updates from this one. Also, sorry to those who have been waiting an eternity for me to update "My Body, Your Soul-Revised". I was a better writer then than when I had first written that story, but I was sabotaging my efforts by thinking that to be a better writer, I needed to be as wordy as possible. ((shakes head)) I've learned my lesson. I only need about 2,000 words per chapter for it to be enough, they just have to be well written words. I'll revise that revision sooner or later, hehehe. Also note that in this version, I decided to write all the characters' names and towns as I actually believe the original intent was, not the way they ended up getting interpreted. Therefore, Riza is Liza, Risembool is Reisenburgh, and so on. Should be an interesting twist, no? Hehe  
**_

_**In any case, I hope you all enjoy this revision!**_

_**Disclaimer: The little voices in my head say that I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist, but I'm not sure if I believe them or not. **_

Ed sighed as he walked up towards the door which spelled doom in his mind. "Time for another funloving day with the egotistical (beep) Colonel. I'm your host, Roy smart(beep)." Ed grinned mischievously at Al for a brief moment, as though to gauge a reaction, but the armor refused to budge. Ed leaned forward and sighed. It was no use. The Colonel was going to give him heck whether he made light of the situation or not, and Al certainly wasn't going to support him. He might as well just get this over with, before Al decided to lay more guilt trips on him.

"Okay, Al, I'm going in to talk to Colonel whatzit, so you wait out here." Al nodded and Ed took a step toward the Colonel's room, when he suddenly stopped and turned around to face his brother again. "Oh, and Al...if you hear any sort of screaming in there...don't send for help unless you can tell it's my screaming." Ed then rubbed his hands as though concocting a master plot and turned back towards Colonel Mustang's office. He knew that Al wouldn't take him seriously on such a threat, but it was fun to watch the reactions. Al surely would have rolled his eyes at that joke had he been in human form.

Ed slammed open the Colonel's door. "Okay, Colonel (beep), I came running like a good little pup once you called me, so this had better be worth my time."

Colonel Mustang half chuckled, but quickly wiped the expression off of his face. "Hm? I think an ant just crawled into my office. Maybe I should squish it."

Ed clenched his fists and growled. He was so going to get even with that man one of these days, if only he could figure out how. "Must you always refer to my height when you call me here?"

The Colonel cocked an eyebrow and looked up at the boy. "Must you always replace my name with a curse word whenever I call you here?"

"Fine!" Ed said, and waved his hand at the man to try and brush the uncomfortable subject off of him, "Just tell me what you want me to do so we can get out of each other's presence!"

"Aw, but I'm not done teasing you yet!" said the Colonel with a look of mischief in his eyes. Ed continued to glare, so the Colonel simply smiled and reached for a folder, which he promptly handed to Ed. "This is a highly unusual mission. I chose you to carry it out because you are an oddball in every sense of the word."

Ed took the folder from the Colonel and then put his spare hand on his hip. "Should I take that as a compliment or an insult?"

The Colonel shrugged. "Whichever you choose it to be, shorty." Ed was about to blow at the mention of such a heinous word, but the Colonel quickly moved on to his next topic before Ed had time to react properly. "This mission might seem stupid to you at first glance, but don't underestimate it." The man then leaned back in his chair and looked under his desk, seeming to take delight in something he had stored under there, out of sight of anyone else. He kicked at whatever it was a couple times and then looked back up at Ed.

"You may leave now, Fullmetal. All the information you need is in that packet."

Ed nodded and then left the room, cursing under his breath.

As soon as the door was safely closed, Colonel Mustang smiled wickedly and then transformed into Envy. He snickered at the success of his little trick and looked down underneath his desk once more, where a black-haired man lay, tied up and gagged and obviously repeatedly kicked.

"See what I told you, Colonel? The Fullmetal shorty isn't as smart as you give him credit for. He didn't even realize that I was sending him on a suicide mission." The homunculus then stood up and then transformed into some other military officer as he walked across the room. "So long, Colonel," he said, "Good luck in getting out of this situation." He then opened the door and left the room.

* * *

"I can't sense them, Ms. Aries. I apologize," said a blue-clad woman, sitting calmly on a stone in a clearing somewhere out in the woods. Her dress swayed lightly in the breeze and made her shudder just slightly, but it wasn't really that cold.

"You're lying," said the other woman, standing over her.

"No!" said the first woman, nervously, "No, I'm telling the truth! They're off my radar, I swear it!"

The second woman's eyes produced something of a spark behind them, as though a fire was kindled from within. Her face took a determined stance, and she stepped towards the woman in the blue dress. "If you won't talk willingly, I have my ways of convincing you." Without another word, she grabbed a hold of the back of the woman's neck and her face took on the expression of a scowl.

The first woman tossed her head back and screamed. Tears began running down her face. "Please, Ms. Aries!" She gasped for breath and cried again. "They-They've just started moving. They'll find us soon, I swear!"

The second woman threw the first down to the ground and grinned wickedly. "Very good. Thank you, Pisces, that was all I wanted to hear." She turned away from the woman who was still struggling on the ground to regain her breath and said, "What was so hard about that?"

The woman named Pisces wheezed a bit more and then rubbed her head as though trying to ease the pain. "Please, Ms. Aries...please stop this!"

Aries whipped around and glared at the woman with her fiery eyes. "In case you've forgotten your origins, Ms. Pisces, we are the signs of the zodiac. We are meant to be united, and _I_ call the shots here!" She didn't say anything else as she spun back around and walked away to attend to some other business.

Pisces struggled to her feet, still feeling quite awkward from the attack she had gotten from the other woman. She hated that woman. If only there was a way to knock her down off her pedestal. She pressed her hand to her forehead and closed her eyes tightly, hoping for the pain to subside.

Suddenly she snapped her eyes back open. Of course there was a way. What could fire hope to compete against water? "If I can find Scorpio and Cancer before she does," said Pisces to herself, "The three of us can unite and collectively overthrow that woman." She sighed an almost happy sigh. It was the first time in a long time that she had been able to feel almost happy, but the thought of freedom was elating.

Now, how was she to track the other two signs down? They were fellow water signs, as she was, so they would naturally be attracted to their native element. That ought to make things a bit simpler. The fact that she also possessed the most psychic ability of anyone in the zodiac circle gave her a high advantage.

She brought her hand down from her forehead and laughed. The pain was subsiding now, and her clarity of thought was beginning to return. She closed her eyes as she imagined a part of her rising up into the clouds. The next thing she knew, a drop of rain water had fallen upon her, followed closely by another, and another. It wasn't long before a small shower of rain was falling all around her. She smiled and reached her hand up into the oncoming rain, allowing it to replenish and revitalize her. "I declare this day," she said, "To be the first day of my freedom!" She then laughed again and took off running through the rain.

* * *

Knock Knock. "Colonel?" No response. That was odd. She was sure the man must be in his room. She knocked again. "Sir, may I come in?" There was still no response. This seemed so wrong somehow. Regardless of whether she was invited or not, she didn't feel right about leaving without investigating the cause of the Colonel's silence. The woman pushed open the door and stepped in.

"Colonel?" she said, taking a sweep of the room with her eyes, and still seeing nothing. Suddenly she heard a slam from beneath the desk followed by what sounded like a very muffled moan. Without wasting time, the woman drew her gun and rushed over to the other side of the desk to investigate.

When she saw what was under the desk waiting for her, she almost dropped her gun. "Colonel? How did-?" She shook her head. It was most important to solve the problem first, and then she could feel free to ask questions. She knelt down next to the tied up man and carefully untied the knots and removed the gag from the man's mouth.

As soon as he was free, the Colonel sat up slowly and rubbed his joints where the robes had tied him up to try and relieve some of the sting and coax the blood to start flowing back into those parts. "Thank you, Lieutenant," he said, bowing his head in obvious humiliation at having been caught in such a position.

Liza Hawkeye leaned down and grabbed the man by his arm and pulled him up so that he wouldn't have to remain in such an undignified position on the floor. "Now, what happened to get you in that situation, sir?" she said.

"One word," said Roy as he brushed his clothes off to try and regain a little bit of dignity, "Envy."

Liza blinked. "The homunculus, sir?"

"The same," said Roy, turning to Liza with a concerned look on his face, "He tricked Fullmetal into going on a dangerous mission by pretending to be me."

Liza stared straight ahead, not quite sure what to say. Roy took his chance and walked over to the rack where he hung his coat and hat and promptly put them on. "Looks like a good day to go for a drive, wouldn't you think?"

"But sir-" Liza objected.

Roy waved her off. "Abandoning my paperwork? Maybe, but abandoning my true work, not at all." He sighed and turned around to face the woman directly. "Fullmetal's life is on the line. He wouldn't have even agreed to this mission had his father always been honest with him, but regretting the past won't change anything."

"I'm with you, sir," said the woman, sheathing her gun. "Tell me how I can be of assistance."


	2. Chapter 2

_**Amazing, I actually updated this? Wow, hehe. I finally got some ideas for it, and was able to think of revisions in a way that wasn't tedious like it was the last time I tried, so hopefully I can actually finish this story in a decent amount of time. We'll see. Anyway...**_

_**Disclaimer: It's a claim that disses, it's dissing Ed, which is why I don't like this disclaimers in my story but need to put up for some reason. You figure out why it's here.  
**_

"Wait," said Al, stopping in his walking beside his brother for the time being. It took Edward a few steps to catch on that Al was no longer beside him, but once he did, he stopped and turned around to look at the armor as he continued speaking. "What did you say this case was about again?"

"Nonsense," said Ed with a resigned shrug. "It's utter nonsense, but I guess that someone has to do something about the situation."

"I suppose so," said Al, suddenly picking his pace back up to catch up with his brother, "But did I hear you right? The people we're after think they're the actual signs of the zodiac?"

Ed shrugged again and didn't bother to even look at Al this time. He was getting used to stupidity around him by now, as much as he hated to admit it. Not that Al was stupid, not by any means. These 'zodiac people' sounded pretty idiotic in his mind though. Yet another group who considered themselves to practically be God and had plans of ruling the country. Ho hum, would it never end?

"So is this some new kind of cult?" Al asked, noticing that he wasn't getting much response from his brother. Ed was like that sometimes, so it was probably best to just ignore it for the time being. Sooner or later the boy would open up. "I thought this country didn't bother these cult followings unless they started hurting people."

"Maybe they're hurting people," said Ed boredly. Al couldn't deny the possibility of that, but it did bother him how indifferent his brother was being towards the whole situation. He supposed he couldn't really blame him. The mission in and of itself sounded pretty stupid, and it must've sounded incredibly dumb to his very logical brother. Seek out the people who call themselves 'The Zodiac People' and destroy them. Why? Were they honestly expected to just follow such orders without being given any explanation? Surely they knew his brother better than that.

"Now this is interesting," said Ed suddenly, interrupting Al's thoughts. Al jerked his head around and looked at his brother, who was holding a piece of paper, probably one of the things that the Colonel had given him about the assignment. "Apparently these guys take on so many of the attributes of their particular signs that they're actually weakest during the time of year that represents their sign." The boy paused, looked up at Al and sighed, though he offered half a smile, and then looked back down at the paper. "We could potentially use that to our advantage, if we could just find the weak ones when they're weakest, supposing that they're not being protected by the others."

"That's just weird," said Al, "Why would they be weakest during their sign?"

Ed shrugged. He obviously had no idea. "I'm only going by what's on this paper. If the idiot wants me to successfully complete the mission, he knows quite well that I need accurate information, however bizarre." Ed relaxed his arm so that it fell down beside him as he continued walking, though his hand still clutched at the paper to keep it from slipping away. His head turned upward as he was apparently scanning his mind for information. "Today's October 22, right? That would make it..." He squeezed his eyebrows together momentarily in concentration. "...Libra...no wait, this is the last day of Libra. Tomorrow is the first day of Scorpio, so that's who we should be looking for."

Al shook his head and said nothing. This whole situation seemed insane, and his brother was handling it reasonably well, but he supposed that that was because his brother knew where his paycheck was coming from. Maybe he should take the same stance in this situation, as stupid a situation as it was. His brother needed his support. If they were to get this mission done and over with quickly, they could get back to searching for the Philosophers' Stone. That could have been why his brother was accepting the situation so calmly. Complete the mission, and then get back on their journey. It made sense to him.

"Okay, Brother," said Al, finally speaking up, "So we go after Scorpio. How are we going to find him?"

Ed let out a half chuckle that it almost seemed he had tried to hide. That made Al slightly nervous. That wasn't a friendly little chuckle that one offered when they thought something was funny. That was one that someone offered when they were bothered by something. "Um...well..." said Ed, slowly, obviously taking awhile to collect his thoughts, "For some reason, out of all the people they could have picked for this mission, they picked me." The boy paused for a moment in his speech, and then stopped walking altogether and just looked at the ground. He pawed at the soil beneath him with his boot, making strange designs in the mud. "Maybe no one else would have been able to find them. Maybe they're specifically looking for me. Or us." Ed glanced briefly up into Al's face, probably to gauge a reaction, and then looked away quickly and started walking ahead once again.

Al felt shivers running up and down his non-existent spine as he thought over that statement. Looking for them? And his brother was so calm about it? Did he honestly think he could take on the entire group single-handedly? He hoped they would only meet them one at a time. Then they would have a chance at defeating them all.

As they walked in some random direction that led to who knows where, Al couldn't help but think about the oddness going on around him. There seemed to be a sort of tug within Al's chest, even though his body was gone, and it was pulling him in the exact direction he was going. Did his brother feel that tug too? Was that why they were walking this way? He was afraid to ask, since this mission did indeed seem ridiculous. But scary all the same. They didn't know what they were getting into.

Time passed. The brothers sat down and Ed ate his lunch and discussed random points of the mission and quirky things they had passed in the woods, and then they would pack up and keep going, still having no clue where they were going, but still going there.

Time passed again, and eventually the Elric brothers found themselves at a spot where neither of them had the courage to move on, yet they weren't sure why. The scenery was in no way intimidating, and everything about the day thus far just shouted pleasantries back at them, but something was wrong here.

Al was the first to voice his thoughts. "That feeling's gotten so strong."

Ed whipped his head around and looked at Al, surprised. "You've felt it too?"

"The whole time we were walking through this forest," said Al. "I wasn't sure if it was both of us, or just me."

"Same here." Edward was looking down at the ground. He had his hands in his pockets, a definite sign of uncertainty in his brother's case, though Al was no more certain than he was. Where should they go from here? Was danger awaiting them if they followed the mysterious pull? Maybe they should turn around and go back the other way.

It seemed Ed had thought the same thing as he pulled his hands out of his pockets and brushed past Al while saying, "Come on, Al, let's go."

They took a few steps when they heard a cry of, "Halt!" come from behind them. Both boys turned around to look at who had said that. There stood a young man, dressed in what one might consider a toga, but it had some decorations on it that had clearly been added after the initial piece of clothing had been created, they were so gaudy and mismatched. A show off.

"I have a pretty big voice when I want to, don't I?" said the man with a smile. "That 'halt' was a pretty neat trick, don't you think? It made you both stop. Oh God, am I awesome!"

Edward blinked. And then blinked again. The strange vision was still before him, so he tried blinking a third time. When the guy didn't disappear the third time, he gave up. Al just shrugged. He'd already accepted the guy's weird existence with just the 'halt'.

Edward huffed and crossed his arms. "Alright, Mr. Showoff, who are you?"

"You got it," said the guy.

"Huh?"

"I'm Mr. Showoff."

Edward started blinking again, and Al looked at his brother, trying to will him out of his stupor. The guy seemed to notice Ed's reaction this time and burst out laughing. "Oh dear," he laughed. "Oh dear, oh dear. This guy is sent to find the Zodiac People but can't even recognize them when he finds them." The strange guy strutted around pompously for a few moments before turning back to the brothers. "You guys are hopeless. Hopeless! You'll never get anywhere." More laughter. "Oh, Aries is gonna get youuuuuuu."

Ed had finally managed to come out of his stupor enough to flip through his folder and read a little information. He then handed the folder to Al and told him to hold onto it while he turned and faced the weird man.

"I would guess that you're Leo, am I correct?"

"Oh gosh, was I that obvious?" The guy was still chuckling madly. "I guess I need to kill you now. Oh wait, I was supposed to kill you anyway since you trespassed on our territory. Oh well, this will make it more fun."

Edward knew how to handle threats like that one, and so he clapped his hands and pulled a sword out of his auto-mail arm. The guy appeared to be unarmed, so this shouldn't be too hard unless he alerted the others.

"Ooh, nice trick!" said Leo, "But can you do any better than that?"

"What do you mean?" asked Ed.

"I mean, can you defeat THIS?!" Leo threw himself at the brothers, spontaneously transforming into an arc of fire as he did so.

Fortunately, Ed's reflexes were quick. "Holy shit!" He turned and grabbed Al's hand, and the two proceeded to run in the opposite direction.

"What are we supposed to do, Brother?"

"Run like hell!"

"I mean after that?"

"Dummy, we'll worry about that after we're sure we're not dead!"

Al turned his head and looked back at what was chasing them. The strange fire being was still after them, and was perhaps gaining ground, as the distance between them seemed to be shorter than before. He continued to watch as the fireball ricocheted off the trees, setting them ablaze in his passing. This whole forest was going to burn down if someone didn't do something about this.

Another feeling emerged in Al's chest. Not the same sort of tug he had felt before, but a more pleasant vibration. One that indicated peace and serenity. Perhaps it would lead them to a place safe from this crazy maniac bent on destruction.

Al was about to tell his brother to turn right so that they could go find this place of serenity, but to his surprise, his brother made that turn without any explanation from him. What was going on? Why were they both getting the same feelings as each other all of a sudden? He shrugged it off for now. Eventually he'd find the answers, but right now he had to live.

They ran and ran. Ed tripped over a few branches, but quickly picked himself up and continued going. Al could see that his brother was getting tired and slow. Was there nothing they could do about the monster behind them? If only they'd known he had this kind of power in advance, maybe they would have been able to plan an effective method of fighting him.

Al shook his head. They'd worry about the past later. The present was what they had to consider right then, and right then his brother was getting dangerously fatigued. Any slower and that Leo guy would get him. Al couldn't take that chance, not even if it made Ed angry that he wasn't being permitted to show how 'tough' he was. Without any warning, Al scooped his brother up in his arms and took off running faster than either of them had been able to run before. Finally the gap between them and Leo was widening, but he wasn't going to drop his guard until he knew they were safe.

At last they reached a clearing, but it was a dead end. They had come to a clearing by a lake. Where were they supposed to go from here? That Leo guy would be here any minute!

There was a lady in a blue dress sitting on a log, looking out across the lake. She turned and smiled sadly at Al and Ed, and then patted the log next to her. "You look tired. Please, come and sit down."

"We can't!" yelled Ed as he tried to squirm out of Al's grip. "There's this crazy guy named Leo who can somehow turn into a fireball or something, and he's---"

"He's after you?" the woman interrupted. Ed and Al just nodded.

The woman sighed. "Oh, that idiot, always messing around in affairs that are none of his concern." She stood up and turned toward the forest. "Stand back, you two. This could get a little messy."

"Wait---what are you doing? He'll kill you!"

The woman smiled at them calmly and said, "Just trust me, and wait."

And wait they did, though every second felt like a year. So after many metaphorical years had passed, Leo finally turned up on the scene. The woman closed her eyes, and as she did so, her blue dress seemed to grow to cover her entire body so that no flesh was showing, and once it did so, she became transparent like glass. Wavy, rippling glass that grew and filled up the entire space Leo would have to come through, forming a sort of wall.

Leo came flying out of the forest and smacked into her, knocking the both of them to the ground, and back into their natural forms. Leo was the first to his feet. He pointed at the woman. "Pisces, why do you always mess up what I'm trying to do?"

Ed and Al looked at each other, and then back to the odd people in front of them. This woman was Pisces? Why had she saved them if she was one of these Zodiac People?

Pisces looked up from her spot on the ground but saw no point in getting up. "Why do you always mess up what everyone else is trying to do?"

Leo looked perplexed. "What do you mean?"

The woman finally turned and looked back over at Ed and Al, causing them both to shiver. Transforming people were scary, regardless of whether they had saved your life or not.

"Do you have any idea what Aries would have done to you if you'd actually succeeded in killing them?"

"Why would she care?"

"I'd recommend you go find out before you do something you'll regret."

Leo looked at the boys and then back to Pisces and scratched his head. "But they found the circle. Well, almost. I stopped them just in time… but we can't let people with that much information run free."

"They won't be running free," said Pisces, and she finally pushed herself up and dusted off her dress. "They'll be here with me."

"Lot of comfort that is." Leo snarled, turned back into his fireball shape, and then flew back into the forest.

Pisces finally turned back to the boys, still smiling, and they were still just as unnerved by it as before. What did she want with them enough to save them from the one who wanted to kill them? They knew what her power was at least, so it wouldn't catch them off guard if she decided to kill them, but what a power it was. Could it possibly be defeated with alchemy? Water was composed of hydrogen and oxygen, so if they could convert all the water in her body into gas and then light a match, they could make her explode.

"Exploding me wouldn't be very nice," said Pisces, and she walked toward the boys, still smiling, but not as intensely. Al couldn't show any expression on his metal face, which he was grateful for at the moment, but on look at his brother's face showed a reaction of pure terror. Somehow this woman had managed to read their thoughts, and perhaps that was the one thing Ed found absolutely unacceptable.

He jumped up and thrust his auto-mail sword in her direction, though it didn't do any good since she was still a couple feet away. That didn't stop him though. "Stay back! Or I'll… I'll…"

"Brother, stop it," Al warned, but Ed didn't take the warning. He clapped his hands and then placed them on the ground.

Pisces sighed and rolled her eyes. "I was hoping it wouldn't come to this. But if you want a battle," she then transformed into her watery form, and spoke in a gargled voice, "then you shall have a battle."

Al looked between the two, wanting to stop this so badly, yet not knowing if he should. Or could. Who was in the right, and who was in the wrong, or were both sides neither right nor wrong? Al was grateful again for not having a normal head at the moment, because it would've gotten a headache by now.

Still, duty called, and he was not going to let anything happen to his brother, even if his brother was doing something stupid, so he stood and took up a protective stance behind Ed. Ed looked around, noticed that everyone was in playing position, and then raised his auto-mail sword over his head and shouted, "Bring it on!"

Al shook his head and followed. When would his brother learn to not be so impulsive?

_**And so we have the conclusion of the chapter, and hopefully the beginning of the next one, hehe. Thanks for reading, and come back soon!**_


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